Moist, easy to stir together, and loaded with the classic flavors you expect from carrot cake, these Carrot Cake Bars are a perfect treat to share.
Carrot Cake Bars
I love Carrot Cake Muffins in the spring and these bars? They are absolutely delicious! The cake is moist and tender, and filled with flavors including cinnamon and vanilla. And the frosting is a simple Cream Cheese Frosting that offers a perfect texture combination with the cake. Together, they’re a festive dessert, snack, or even breakfast to share.
The key to making moist carrot cake is usually oil, but in this recipe, I use both oil and applesauce to add natural sweetness and flavor, too. The full cup of fresh carrots also ensures that the batter stays moist.
I love these as an Easter recipe, Mother’s Day brunch, or for any time we need a dessert to share.
(You may also like my Greek Yogurt Cake, Healthy Breakfast Bars, Lemon Yogurt Cake, easy Vanilla Cake and my Zucchini Cake, which is similar to this but with zucchini.)
Table of Contents
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Ingredients You Need
To make this recipe you’ll need to have the following ingredients on hand to start baking the recipe.
- Grated carrots: I prefer the finer texture in Carrot Cake Bars when you grate a whole carrot on a box or handheld grater.
- Butter or neutral oil: You can use melted unsalted butter here or an oil such as coconut, canola, or avocado.
- Applesauce: I use unsweetened smooth applesauce here and you can use homemade applesauce or store bought.
- Eggs: Eggs help the batter hold together and bake up with a tender crumb. I bake with large eggs.
- All-purpose flour: This type of flour helps to keep the final bars light and moist. You can substitute a gluten-free cup-for-cup flour blend as needed.
- Brown sugar: I add a little brown sugar to this recipe for sweetness. I like the way it bakes up in combination with the rest of the ingredients but know you can use honey or maple syrup of you prefer.
- Cinnamon: A hefty sprinkle of cinnamon ensures that classic carrot cake flavor we expect.
- Baking powder and baking soda: These help to ensure that the cake rises and bakes through.
- Golden raisins: I love to add raisins for additional sweetness—and because the Carrot Cake I remember eating as a kid always had raisins!—but if you don’t want to add them you don’t have to. Any type of raisins will work here, we just prefer golden.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Here’s a look at the process involved in making this Carrot Cake Bars recipe. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the full information, including the amounts and the timing.
- Preheat the oven and grease your pan well. Grate the carrot if not using store bought grated carrots. Stir together the wet ingredients.
- Fold in the dry, being gentle to avoid overworking the flour.
- Spread batter into an 8×8-inch metal pan lined with parchment paper or coated with nonstick spray.
- Bake! Cool fully on a wire rack.
TIP: Try not to over-bake the Carrot Cake Bars. The center of the pan will take the longest to set, so keep an eye on that as well as the timing.
Carrot Cake Frosting
The Cream Cheese Frosting for these Carrot Cake Bars is a simple mix of cream cheese, vanilla extract, and honey. Once the cream cheese is softened, all you need to do is beat the ingredients together with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds or until fluffy.
So easy!
How to Store
You can make it up to 24 hours ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or tightly covered in plastic wrap and frost before serving. Or, make the whole thing and refrigerate for up to 4 hours before serving—it’s actually really great served cold.
Use the flour called for in the recipe, which is designed to make moist carrot cake bars when paired with the rest of the ingredients. And avoid over-baking.
Many families prefer to add raisins, but if you are not one of them, you can simply leave them out.
Yes, use an 11×17-inch pan and plan to bake a little longer to ensure that the center is cooked through. Test with a toothpick or cake tester.
Best Tips for Success
- Grease your pan very well to eliminate the likelihood of the Carrot Cake Bars sticking. Or line with parchment paper.
- Gently fold the ingredients together to avoid overworking the batter.
- Use store bought grated carrots or grate them on a grater at home.
- Make sure that the cream cheese isn’t super cold, and is instead softened at room temperature for at least an hour, so it mixes up smooth. It will otherwise be lumpy.
- Taste the frosting and add more honey if desired for sweetness.
- Substitute chopped walnuts or even chocolate chips for the raisins if preferred.
- Dairy-free: Use oil in the batter and vegan cream cheese and butter in the frosting to make dairy-free Carrot Cake Bars.
Related Recipes
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Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins
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Favorite Carrot Cake Oatmeal
Vegetables
10 Best Baby Carrot Recipes
Breakfast
Blueberry Yogurt Cake
I’d love to hear your feedback on this recipe if you try it, so please comment below to share!
Favorite Carrot Cake Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 1 cup applesauce
- ¼ cup unsalted butter (melted and slightly cooled or neutral oil)
- 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup golden raisins
- 1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat an 8×8-inch baking pan (metal is best) with nonstick spray. (I also line with parchment paper so it's easy to lift out and slice without scratching the pan. That is optional.)
- In a large bowl, stir together the carrots, applesauce, eggs, butter, and vanilla.
- Add the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Gently stir the carrot mixture into the flour mixture. Stir in the raisins.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan, smoothing out the top.
- Bake for 22-24 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out cleanly.
- Let cool and top with Cream Cheese Frosting, if desired.
Equipment
Notes
- Once cooled, store in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Serve cold.
- You can also freeze the cut cake, frosted or unfrosted (though unfrosted is cleaner) in a freezer bag with as much air removed as possible for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or in 15 second increments in the microwave.
- This bakes best in a metal pan, rather than glass. If baking in glass, the middle will take longer to set. Follow the recipe, then cover with foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- Gluten-free: Substitute cup-for-cup gluten-free flour in place of the wheat flours.
- Top with Cream Cheese Frosting. Soften 8 ounces cream cheese and ¼ cup unsalted butter at room temperature. Add to a bowl with ¼ cup honey (for kids over age 1) and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Start mixing on low with a handheld mixer until fluffy. Place on top of the cooled bars and spread evenly.
- Dairy-free: Use oil in the batter and vegan cream cheese and butter in the frosting.
- If you prefer your baked goods sweeter (or if you leave out the raisins) increase the brown sugar to ½ cup.
Nutrition
This post was first published March 2019.
If using honey instead of brown sugar, how much would be needed?
I would use the same amount.
I absolutely love these bars and have made them several times for book club or moms night. But do you think the same recipe could be used in a mini muffin tin? My kids are much for likely to eat anything that is a mini muffin haha
Totally! I’d do 375 for 12-14 minutes for mini muffins.
My toddler asked for carrot cakes for the first time, and i knew where to find a recipe that wont fail.
Love all your recipes have tried dozens of them !! All are delicious!
Tnx for the good work and effort and helping moms out there !
All the best
Made this tonight for my 1 year old and my picky two year old and they absolutely loved it will be adding this to my dessert rotation, thank you !
Also made your applesauce muffins earlier this week and they didn’t last long !!
I’ve made this twice now and both times it came out so good! It’s my favorite carrot cake I’ve ever had actually.
The second time I made it, I used a banana instead of applesauce and it still turned out great. Didn’t taste too much banana or anything. I also used sultana raisins instead of golden raisins.
What can I use instead of apple sauce?
You can use mashed ripe banana if you have that on hand.
Hi! I love the ingredients to these carrot cake bars! Do you think this would be ok for a smash cake for a 1st birthday?? Or too dense?
Thank you!
I think it would be great if you made it in two smaller 6 inch cake pans to make a small layer cake!
I just made this yesterday. Wow 😮 it is genuinely so good and yes, my toddler loves it too. Never thought I’d get her to eat carrots or raisins till this moment. I also subbed targets store brand gluten free flour and a Dairy free butter and it turned out perfect.
Delicious and my kiddos loved them too.
Can you do this without the eggs? Or substitute for eggs?
I haven’t tested it but you should be able to use any egg replacer you like in this, including a store bought option or a homemade one. The texture may be softer.
Delicious! Made this tonight as a toddler -friendly option for a luncheon tomorrow. I could eat the whole thing!
What size pan do you use if you double the recipe?
I’ve used a 9×13-inch pan.
Thank you!
I made this recipe and for some reason it came out dense and thick instead of light like a cake. Did I do something wrong or is it supposed to be dense because it is a “bar?” I baked for 25 min and it seemed underdone. I ended up putting it in for a lot more time and I’m still not sure it was enough. I would like to try again because I love the ingredients and the flavor, just need to know if I did something wrong!
It is supposed to be a cake-like bar (due to the shape) so you did it right!
Fantastic!!
I only had half a cup of applesauce so added 1/2 cup of sweet potato puree. Then felt adventurous and added 1/4 cup boiled lentils and a scoop of chia seeds. Delicious!!
Kids and husband have finished off half a pan already!
Thanks Amy!
Love these bars!!! My son (who is quite hard to please) is a huge fan. I replaced the 1/4 cup of brown sugar with coconut sugar and added a scoop of chia seeds and they came out wonderfully! These will definitely be added to our regular dessert rotation! Thanks for all your great recipes!